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James Kudelka’s The Man in Black has Toronto debut June 19

National Ballet dances Kudelka work choreographed to songs sung by Johnny Cash

James Kudelka has choreographed well known classical works for the National Ballet of Canada. But with The Man in Black, getting its Toronto debut June 19, he has used country-western dance styles and songs sung by Johnny Cash. (DANIEL NEUHAUS PHOTO)

Anyone who tries to pigeonhole James Kudelka as this or that kind of choreographer is doomed to failure. It’s not only that he moves comfortably between the worlds of classical ballet and experimental contemporary dance; he simply defies all the conventional categories.

Who, for example, could have predicted that the man who choreographed National Ballet productions of such classics as Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Prokofiev’s Cinderella could, on a much smaller scale but with equal impact, use a folksy country-western dance style to probe the meaning and emotion in six songs made memorable by the gravelly voice of Johnny Cash?

Yet this is what Kudelka has done in The Man in Black, a work he first choreographed for BalletMet Columbus more than three years ago that is finally receiving its Toronto premiere on Wednesday, June 19, as part of the National Ballet of Canada’s season-ending mixed program.

Kudelka’s work will share the bill with a revival from 2010 of Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo’s Pur ti Miro; a duet choreographed by principal dancer Guillaume Côté to Paganini’s familiar Caprice No. 24 in A minor and, as a tutu, tiara and toe-shoe closer, Balanchine’s Theme and Variations: a something-for-everyone lineup if ever there was one.

Kudelka’s choreography for a small, cowboy-booted cast of three men and one woman appears deceptively simple, but the way he modulates a barn-born movement vocabulary becomes an eloquent commentary on the songs and, ultimately, a heartfelt celebration of the gritty characters who dance to them.

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Kudelka, who once set a now sadly lost work to Beatles songs for Montreal’s Les Ballets Jazz, was very particular about his choice of Cash recordings. He was attracted to Cash’s later years when the songs “were not so much about prison, but more about a very seasoned artist playing for his own pleasure . . . elegiac and very moving.”

The Man in Black was an immediate hit in Columbus and was subsequently staged by companies in Cincinnati and Atlanta. Our National Ballet, alert to the local marketing appeal of Cash singing such songs as Ian Tyson’s “Four Strong Winds” and Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind,” gave it its Canadian premiere as part of a September 2011 Western Canada tour. It was a hit again.

At the time, The Man in Black was the first Kudelka work the National Ballet had acquired since his departure as artistic director in 2005. The company has continued to perform some earlier Kudelka works, including The Nutcracker annually and profitably, but as a choreographer his commissions were coming from elsewhere.

That will change in the 2013/14 season when Kudelka contributes his first new work in more than eight years to the company’s November “Innovation” program. In fact, taken as a whole, Kudelka’s choreography will be a dominant theme.

Apart from the new work and The Nutcracker, the National Ballet will revive his productions of Cinderella and Swan Lake, which will also tour to Ottawa. About 70 per cent of all the company’s hometown performances next season will feature Kudelka’s choreography.

For a choreographer who at times appeared estranged from the troupe he grew up in, it’s quite a turnaround.

The National Ballet mixed program runs June 19 to 23 at the Four Seasons Centre, 145 Queen St. W. Go to http://national.ballet.ca/ www.national.ballet.caEND or call 416-345-9595 for information.

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